Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface (support base). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used including rollers and sprayers. Painting is also used to define a common trade among craftsmen and builders. Painters require many tools in their activities including paint, brushes, and paint rollers are required as are paint trays and paint cans together with other items which may include drop-clothes, scrapers, tape, and screwdrivers. Irrespective of the medium and surface it is very difficult even for professional craftsmen to easily manage these items during their painting activities especially when painting a large room, corridor etc.
At the end of a day's painting activities the painter then performs a series of cleanup activities such as cleaning their brush or brushes, cleaning the roller, and washing the paint tray. Either that or they dispose of them all and begin the next day with new implements that are expensive and not environmentally conscious. Accordingly it would be beneficial to provide the painter with a system that provides them with the ability to easily move their painting implements around during their time painting as well as managing their painting implements for a period of time after a painting session so that they do not need to spend time cleaning before finishing that painting session or disposing of their implements after the session and using new implements in the next session.
Within the prior art systems for the storage and management of painting implements such as presented by R. Mill in U.S. Patent Application 2010/0,108,685 “Paint Assembly”; D. Bastarache in U.S. Patent Application 2006/0,108,192 “Painter's Container”; J. K. Verbrugge et al in U.S. Patent Application 2005/0,098,564 “Packaging for Paint Comprising Lid with Integral Roller Tray”; M. G. McKenna in U.S. Pat. No. 4,903,869 “Brush Storage and Fluid Dispensing Device”; and R. A. Heisler in U.S. Pat. No. 3,828,389 “Unitary Container having a Hinged Panel with a Tray Configuration” suffer drawbacks from the painter's viewpoint. Amongst these are limitations in handling painting implements between painting sessions without cleaning them, restrictions on replacing elements within the systems, and flexibility.
Typically, painters will seek to minimize expenses such buying those paint trays on special offer, using disposable paint tray liners, using quart paint cans for small painting jobs, etc. Accordingly it would be beneficial to provide painters with a system that provided flexibility in handling paint cans as well as paint trays, different sizes of paint cans, variations in paint tray dimensions, etc as well as providing an easily maneuvered system during their painting session to reflect their motion and areas being painted that can be quickly closed at the end of a painting session or their change of paint.
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.